Technics SX-KN-2600

I've had this keyboard for almost a year now and it has loads of stuff to play around with, it works great with my pc and i have connected it up to my other kayboard without any problems. Recording straight into my mixer desk it has a bit of white noise but I think that this may be my mixer desk and not the actual keyboard.Overall it is easy to do the basic things on this, but if you want any more than that it can get fairly complicated, and the manual is terrible. But i guess thats what you get if you buy a workstation type keyboard like this.

I think that the polyphony is 64, I'm not quite sure on that. The action is nice but i prefer the action on my other Yamaha keyboard, it is a bit easier to play, the black notes are really what lets the action down. It has built in fx, and some really weird ones for the microphone, which you wouldnt really use, but are quite fun to muck around with. There are no expansion capabilites, but this isnt really the kind of keyboard youd want to expand on, if you need that kind of versitility go buy a Motif or something. Yeh the midi is good (has midi2) but i dont really use this much as I prefer working with audio. Okay the on board sequencer. It is really hard to use and so far (after nearly a year) I still havent been able to get anything proper recorded on it, though I suspect this is something to do with the less than clear manual. It seems to have plenty of possibilites, if you can work out how to use them!

I really use this keyboard for synth type sounds, and electic pianos, but I did look through some of the other instruments when i got it, adn the woodwidn section is terrible. It has far too much vibrato on all of them which you cant switch off, and the clarinet is the worst. But i guess if you want realistic woodwind, buy a real instrument or a wind synthesiser. You can turn the touch sensitivity up and down on a scale of 0-10, which is good, the default setting is 6, which is okay. It does have velocity and aftertouch and stuff, but I dont really bother with all that, generally if i want to edit a sound I will do it on my computer.

Yeh i would depend on this keyboard, but i only really use it in my home studio, I dont gig.

Never dealt with them

This is definetly worth the price I paid, as it was reduced from #1000. I wouldnt have got it at that price, but really the only reason I bought it was because its not often you see pro keyboards at that price! I've been playing for about 7-8 years. The other gear I own which i use this with is a Behringer Eurorack mixing desk, my old Yamaha Psr-290 and my pc with Cool Edit Pro 2.0, because aparantly I'm too cheap to buy Adobe Audition. Sometimes I use it with Sonar 2.1, but not often. The one thing I wish it had was some EQ control in the from the pots, or sliders, ot whatever. accesseing the EQ from the general menu is a pain, and overly complicated.

Possibilities. Thats what this keyboard has. A lot of. SD-card and USB-connection are great features. It`s kn7000 and midi2/NX compatible which is important also if needed. Lot`s of sounds and rhythms, good sequencer... Well, almost everything except possibility to record audio (vocals). With audio-kit (? 150) you can do this thou. Also, I wouldn`t mind having input-connection for guitar+FX-unit / CD.

Since our Technics is a learning tool for our daughter, and I`m very poor pianist myself, I love those downloadable midi-songs that you can find from internet. Then, after downloading, I can play them easily from laptop via USB-connection ? or save them to SD-card. You could even download karaoke (.kar) files and with midi file converter (free download; seek from google) you can change it to mid.file and play it in kn2600 with lyrics!

How the hell did I get this for ?635??? I checked at www.thomann.de and it costs over ?1200 right now. Kn2400 (no SD but floppy-disk) costs less than ?800 at the moment. Btw, I`ve heard that kn`s manufacture has ended. But is that really so?

Synth Zone (www.synthzone.com / Technics forum)is good place if you need help, Technics own pages are nothing special.

Mine just arrived the other day. No reviews here about kn2600 yet, so I`ll give you some specs, and I`ll come back later, when I`m more familiar with my kn2600.

There was amazing-amazing deal (?635, normally about ? 1300) for this unit and after comparing it to rivals, Yamaha PSR 1100/2100 ?999/1299, I found it hard not to go for this one. So I went. Actually this keyboards ?cheaper? version kn2400 with some differences cost at the moment more, ? 999 to be exact.

Useful links:

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/SXKN2400.PDF manual
http://www.synthzone.com pick ?Technics discussion?
http://www.technicskn7000.com user site, downloads

so here is the main specifications for this Technics sx kn 2600 keyboard:

? 61 dynamic keys
? sound generator PCM max. Polyphony 64 voices 1.064 sounds (1,028 sounds + 2 organ rawbars + 34 Drumkits). sound Group: Piano, Guitar & Harpsi, tringer & Vocal, Brass, Mallet & Orch Perc, organ & Accordion, Sax & Woodwind, Synth, bass, Drum kit, digitally Drawbar
sound Explorer
? Effect: Sustain, digital, multi Effect, reverb, Chorus
? Wheel: pitch Bend, modulation
? Number of Rhythms: 680 Pattern (170 Styles x 4 variations) Rhythm Groups: Pop, skirt, Ballad, jazz & Swing, Dance Pop, simple Beat, Dance club, Trad & Waltz, Ballroom & Show, Latin & World, USA
? performance Pads, AutoPlay Chord mode, Music Style Arranger, sound Arranger, Music Stylist, One Touch Play, Techni Chord
? panel memory: 3 banks x 8 panel, set, Next bank, bank View
? Sequencer 16 tracks, 1/96 by Beat, approx.. 40,000 Events, 10 Songs max., functions: Easy record, real-time record, step record, record & Edit, CoPy & paste, rank Edit Composer: 8 tracks bass, Accomp 1 - 5, Drums 1 + 2, approx.. 13,000 Events, 3 Memory of banks, functions: Easy Composer, real-time record, step record, Pattern CoPy, SEQ ton of Composer CoPy, load single Composer.
? SD Card: load, save, Favorite Songs, Technics Song Medley, SD audio play, SD sound play, SD Card Tools, SD Preference. sound Setting: part Setting, mixer, master Tuning, key scaling, Techni Chord, sound load option, APC Reverb Setting, sound Arranger.
? Display: LCD, 320 x 240 points, Page, Contrast, exit, display Hold
connections: headphones, foot pedal, Exp pedal, LINE Out (R/mono L), Midi (in, Out), USB, MIC
? dimension(WxHxD): 105.7 x 16.2 x 40.4 cm net weight: 11.7 kg
? Accessories:AC mains cable, note stand, CD Rome, SD Card

Basicly, this is the ?little-brother? of Technics kn-7000 (?3000) which is the best in it`s own scene, if you ask me. Kn2600 is based to former kn1600, but I see new stuff added to this one like the better NX-sound chip. Kn2400 has a floppy-drive (like kn1600) and kn2600 has a SD-drive, that is the main difference between the two new Technics keyboards. This is a big deal to me. I would say that SD-card is the future and floppy is the past. That is much said, but investing to new gear, you really have to think about tomorrow too. I won`t go deeper in explaining this now, look for yourself in a few years...

Also the more expensive ?top of the line- kn7000 has SD-card system. Kn26 can play kn7000 styles, but but: Kn26 doesn`t have The Custom (known also as Flash-) Style area, where you can load the individual styles from SD-card. This might be BIG disappointment. This means that even if you can download styles to SD-card, you don`t have specific memory storage for them. Well, there is 3 composer style areas and panel memory, but nothing else. And no direct-play from SD-card either. So If you want styles-collection put it in your computer and ?pick styles up? when needed. Kn2600 comes with USB-connections and PC-programs, so I really do not see this memory-lack as a problem. Users without PCs should disagree with me here thou.

IMO other important things n